Football is a collision sport, and player safety and protection — from head to toe — is extremely important.

Without the right protective gear, most football players eventually suffer from an injury of some kind. While concussions and knee issues are some of the most commonly discussed football injuries, ankle injuries are the second most reported injury in the sport. Most football ankle injuries are sustained during player on player contact, through either blocking or being tackled, and the others typically result from making contact with the playing surface.

In particular, running backs tend to have the most sprained ankles, with receivers coming in second. The most severe football ankle injuries occur in linemen when their ankle is stepped on, or fallen on. This sort of accident causes external rotation of the ankle and results in a high (syndesmotic) ankle injury. These high ankle sprains are more severe than lower ankle injuries, making them harder to treat and taking longer to heal.

Since high ankle sprains are so common (and because it costs three times as much to tape a player than buy a brace for them to wear), many teams are beginning to require their players to wear preventative bracing as a part of their protection gear, like helmets or shoulder pads. If not to wear all of the time, then at least to wear during practice.

The Ultra Zoom preventative ankle brace used by some of the nations most elite players is built with performance driven technology. With it, you can get get down in your stance with no restriction with the protection you need to help prevent an ankle injury. The Ultra Zoom is the only preventative ankle brace built with the science and technology to be durable enough to last all season.

Playing with a Football Ankle Injury

If you’re already hurt and absolutely need to play, there are a couple of things that need to happen. You need to stabilize your injured ankle and unload the joint to reduce weight bearing pain. There is only one ankle brace that can stabilize and unload your ankle joint so that you can play through a football ankle injury, and it’s the Ultra CTS. Trusted by many major collegiate and professional teams, athletes use this acute injury ankle brace to reduce weight bearing pain to provide enough relief that they are able to return to play. No other brace provides the relief you need to get back on the gridiron.

You’ll play better and play more, losing less time to injuries.